The group hopes that The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States, will declare that the federal government, New Jersey and other states with similar voting restrictions are violating "universally accepted human rights standards."
NEWARK -- Rebuffed in three attempts to get New Jersey to allow parolees to vote, the American Civil Liberties Union is appealing to an international human rights organization, hoping to bring pressure on the state to reverse its policy barring people from casting ballots after getting out of prison.
The group hopes that The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States, will declare that the federal government, New Jersey and other states with similar voting restrictions are violating "universally accepted human rights standards."
The international agency has no power to compel the changes, but "we believe that the moral suasion of such an eminent hemispheric body would be taken very seriously by New Jersey officials," said Professor Frank Askin of Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic.
Over the past several years, the ACLU has sued New Jersey trying to overturn the ban on people on parole or probation from voting.
The suit was dismissed, a state appeals court upheld the rejection, and the state Supreme Court refused to get involved.
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